King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “historical”

历史上
lì shǐ shàng
Traditional: 歷史上
historical; in history

The closest CC-CEDICT match for historical is 历史上 (lì shǐ shàng), defined as: historical; in history.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

历 lì
history; calendar
radical 27 ⼚ · 4 strokes
史 shǐ
history, chronicle, annals
radical 30 ⼝ · 5 strokes
上 shàng
above, on top, superior; to go up; to attend; previous
radical 1 ⼀ · 3 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 历史上.

WordPinyinMeaning
历史 (歷史)lì shǐhistory; 门 (mén),段 (duàn)
经历 (經歷)jīng lìto experience; to go through; experience (CL:段 (duàn),次 (cì))
学历 (學歷)xué lìeducational background; academic qualifications
简历 (簡歷)jiǎn lìcurriculum vitae (CV); résumé
历程 (歷程)lì chéngcourse; process
历任 (歷任)lì rèn(of one person) to hold the successive posts of; (of several persons) the successive (presidents etc)
史上shǐ shàngin history
史料shǐ liàohistorical material or data
以上yǐ shàngthat level or higher; that amount or more; the above-mentioned

See also: Japanese symbol for “historical”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.